Google confirms Iran-linked hackers targeted Trump, Biden campaigns
An Iranian government-linked hacking group has targeted officials on the campaigns of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, and attacks are ongoing against campaign officials, Google's cybersecurity arm announced Wednesday.
The report — put out days after the Trump campaign confirmed to POLITICO that it had been hacked— does not say if the hackers were behind the specific hacked and leaked documents that POLITICO reported on.
Top Iranian team: The Google Threat Analysis Group wrote Wednesday that APT42, a hacking group associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, had targeted “the personal email accounts of roughly a dozen individuals affiliated with President Biden and with former President Trump.” These included current and former U.S. government officials and people working on the campaign.
The analysis said that Google blocked “numerous” attempts by APT42 to log into the personal accounts of these individuals, notified the campaigns targeted and referred the cases to law enforcement. However, the report does not confirm that APT42 was behind any hack and leak operation, only that Iran is interested in the campaigns, including that of Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris.
Ongoing: Google said in the report that it "continues to observe unsuccessful attempts from APT42 to compromise the personal accounts of individuals affiliated with President Biden, Vice President Harris and former President Trump, including current and former government officials and individuals associated with the campaigns."
Possible source: The Google report also said that APT42 “successfully gained access to the personal Gmail account of a high-profile political consultant,” but did not name the consultant. POLITICO reported Tuesday that the personal account of Roger Stone, a Republican operative and Trump supporter, was likely compromised.
Earlier Wednesday, Trump blamed Iran for hacking his campaign in his first public comments on the incident and praised the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s probe into the hack.
Known antagonist: APT42 also attempted to interfere during the 2020 U.S. presidential elections, when Google was also involved in blocking attempts by these attackers and another Chinese-linked group to target the then-campaigns of Trump and Biden.
